                    DIFF - A file comparison utility


SYNTAX:

    DIFF [-<controls>] [-<controls>]* [-f]<file1> [-f]<file2>

ARGUMENTS:

    Arguments to the DIFF utility may be specified in any order.

    <controls>  A set of one or more control flags modifying the default
                operation of the utility. Valid flags are:
                
                FLAG    DEFAULT                   MEANING
                ----    -------    -------------------------------------
                 A       FALSE      Ignore blank lines. This control is
                                    ignored if the "E" control is
                                    specified
                 B       FALSE      Perform binary comparison. All other
                                    controls are ignored if this control
                                    is specified
                 C       FALSE      Ignore case of alphabetic characters.
                 E       DIFF       Report matches instead of differences.
                 H        NO        Display help information.
                 L#       132       '#' specifies the maximum line length.
                 M#       25        '#' specifies the length of the
                                    longest non-unique block of lines.
                 S       FALSE      Skip leading white space on a line.
                 T       FALSE      Skip trailing white space on a line.
                 W       FALSE      Treat contiguous white space as a
                                    single blank.

                Control flags may be specified in any order. Their case is
                not important. They may be specified separately
                (ie, "-a -w") or concatenated together (ie, "-astw"). 

    <file1>     The pathname of the first of the two files to be compared.
                Because arguments may be specified in any order, this
                pathname must be preceeded with "-F" (or "-f") if it
                begins with one of the control flag characters.
                
    <file2>     The pathname of the second of the two files to be
                compared. Because arguments may be specified in any order,
                this pathname must be preceeded with "-F" (or "-f") if it
                begins with one of the control flag characters.
                
FUNCTION:

    The DIFF utility performs a comparison of two files and produces a
    report detailing either the differences or similarities between these
    files.


